Castello di Belgioioso

History

In 1376, Galeazzo II Visconti, co-lord of Milan and lord of Pavia, purchased from Lanterio de Cazabove of Pavia a castle, equipped with a tower and ricetto, in Belgioioso.

The present castle was probably rebuilt by Galeazzo II in the second half of the 14th century in an extensive Visconti property in the territory where the town of Belgioioso later arose. The name "Zoioso" was perhaps given to the castle because of the amenity of the place and the happiness that staying there must once have brought. The area where the castle was built was close to the Via Francigena and a large forest, which went (south of the castle) as far as the bank of the Po, near the Chiesa di San Giacomo della Cerreta della Cerreta and the important port of Pissarello, known in the Middle Ages as the "Porcaria valley" because of the large number of wild boar in the dense oak forests.

The new Visconti castle, conceived as a hunting lodge, echoes the ad quadratum layout (without the corner towers) and monumental dimensions (each side is about 100 meters long) of the castle in Pavia, the seat of the court of Galeazzo II and his son Gian Galeazzo.

Galeazzo II's son, Gian Galeazzo, lord and later duke of Milan, stayed there repeatedly; so dear to his heart was his home in Belgioioso that, in a letter from him dated December 22, 1393, he prohibited the hunting of deer and any other game as far as Bereguardo, Vigevano, and Abbiategrasso. …

Description

Like many other castles in Lombardy, that of Belgioioso has a quadrangular layout, surrounded by a wide moat. The complex has three inner courtyards, differing (due to renovations and adaptations to stylistic dictates over the centuries) in physiognomy. The eastern façade, facing Vittorio Veneto Square, retains the tall original 14th-century elevation, set on a scarp base and completely in exposed brickwork, provided with a drawbridge and fitted with Ghibelline battlements (embellished with a decorative band of bricks arranged in denticles), which also extends over much of the castle's north-facing façade. The west-facing facade, on the other hand, open to the large Italian garden, was remodeled in the second half of the 18th century in the Neoclassical style.

In the eastern part of the castle, which has most maintained the appearance of the medieval fortress, a stone staircase dating back to the 18th century is preserved, while restorations undertaken after 2008 have returned a 14th-century mullioned window entirely painted with a blue-and-white lozenge motif and the coat of arms of Galeazzo II Visconti, and traces of the same decoration have also emerged in some rooms leaning against the castle's eastern façade. Other rooms in this wing of the castle, on the other hand, are decorated with telamons and heraldic devices of the Barbiano di Belgioioso family dating from the late 16th century. Also in the eastern part of the castle, during restorations in 2014, the remains of a two-story tower, also dating from the 14th century, were identified and later incorporated inside the building. …